Indian School of Business : Mohali Campus as LEED Gold certified by IGBC

India is experiencing a rise in green development through institutional projects. One of India’s premier Business school, Indian School of Business (ISB), has its campus in Mohali certified as LEED Gold by the Indian Green Building Council.

The self-­‐sustaining campus spread over 70 acres, designed by New York-­‐ based architectural firm, Perkins Eastman. The campus is equipped with energy-­‐efficient mechanical and electrical fixtures, rainwater harvesting, maximised day lighting and passive environmental controls.

Energy efficiency through HVAC and solar power

The campus has installed air conditioning of about 300 tons of cooling which is sustained by an innovative geothermal cooling system. The geothermal heat sink system uses the earth as heat sink instead of outside atmosphere in conventional systems. The earth temperatures in most cases are much lower than the atmospheric temperatures, so this revolutionary design uses the low temperatures of lower ground surfaces (Geothermal heat transfer) to save on energy and electricity consumption by saving up to 40% energy consumption. The process involves pre-­‐cooling the chilled water by geo thermal cooling. With lower temperatures, the efficiencies of the air-­‐conditioning systems are significantly higher. Moreover, no CFC (chlorofluorocarbon)-based refrigerants are utilized.

The campus also employs solar energy to power a part of its requirement. All accommodations – student villages, faculty housing, and executive housing have solar powered geysers and a basement also employs solar technology. Additionally, 80% of the campus lighting is complied with LED lighting system, which not only enhance the beauty of the campus but also save energy. This leads to up to 70% reduction in energy usage as compared to the regular lighting.

Beyond sustainable features : local farming, wastage, and low energy

The campus has also launched sustainable farming in the premises and will be aiming to have its local production to meet 20% of the in-­‐house demand by 2017-­‐ 2018.

“Even the students and ISB community have imbibed the virtues of sustainability in their value system. We also promote energy efficiency in student accommodation. Housing energy challenge is one such competition that rewards studios and shared accommodations with lowest energy consumption“, added Chayan Kaushal, the Student Director for the Operations and Sustainability Council at ISB Mohali.

The campus is also working on vermin compost fields as a pilot project to utilise food wastage and contribute towards sustainability. ISB is also on the way to be enlisted on the International Sustainable campus network (ISCN). ISCN has more than 60+ universities from all over the world promoting sustainability and research in the domain.

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This article is an exclusive submission by the Indian School of Business. The author is Chayan Kausal, the Director of Operations and Sustainability Council at the institution in Mohali.